10 Questions About Behavior for an Interview (With Advantages)
When preparing for a job interview, you might think about asking about specific situations and how the candidate used their skills and knowledge to deal with them. Interviewers often ask these kinds of questions to find out how people act in different situations. You can do better job interviews and hire better people for your company if you know what questions to ask. This article explains what behavioral interview questions are, gives 10 examples, and talks about five good reasons to ask them.
What are behavior questions?
Behavioral interview questions ask how a candidate has handled different situations at work. These questions give the candidate a chance to show parts of their personality, traits, skills, and behavior that are useful in a professional setting or workplace. They often ask candidates to think about specific events and situations where they used their personality traits to solve a problem. This can show skills like being able to think critically or solve problems. You can answer these questions about work you did alone or with a group. They give candidates a chance to think about how they acted and explain what they could have done differently.
Why do employers ask about behavior in the past?
During an interview, hiring managers often ask behavioral questions to learn more about a candidate’s general attitude and how they act at work. They can also tell a lot about a candidate’s ability to work well with others or if they prefer to work alone. One of the main reasons to ask behavioral interview questions is that a person’s behavior at a previous job often shows how they might act at a new job.
By asking these questions, you can find out, for example, if their behavior at their last job or in another professional setting contributed to their success. If not, the candidate can talk about what they learned and how it made them change. You can use the answers to help you pick the best person for a job at your company or organization.
5 reasons why behavioral interview questions are a good idea
There are a number of good reasons to ask behavioral questions of job candidates during interviews.
1. It’s a quick way to get to know someone.
You can find out about a candidate’s professional background and work history by asking them traditional interview questions. On the other hand, behavioral interview questions help you learn about a person’s personality. Asking someone one or two questions about how they act is a quick way to find out what they think and how they act. By asking these interview questions, you can learn a lot about a candidate’s personality, skills, strengths, and values.
2. It gives the candidate a chance to think about how they act.
When you ask a candidate behavioral interview questions, they can also think about how they acted in their past jobs or professional experiences. During this time, the candidate can think about how they would handle similar situations at their new job based on what they have learned in the past. Watch how they act as they think about their answers, like if they’re nervous, unsure, or taking a long time to answer. This can tell you how they deal with stress and how quickly they might be able to find solutions at work.
3. It speeds up the process of hiring and interviewing.
Once a candidate has answered a few behavioral questions, you can get a good idea of who they are and if you want to move them on to the next step in the hiring process. You can ask them these questions instead of making them answer a lot of questions that repeat the information in their cover letter or resume. This can save time and make the interviewing and hiring process more organized.
4. Provides customizable questions based on candidate
You can change behavioral questions to fit your business or the person you’re interviewing. If you want to know how a candidate handled a situation where a client or customer was unhappy with their service, you can make your question fit the company’s culture or way of doing things. For example, if your company’s specialty is selling shoes, you can ask them how they use their strengths to make more sales. This can help you decide if their personality is a good fit for your company and if they would get along well with their coworkers.
5. It gives candidates a chance to say more.
With these questions, job candidates may be able to talk about their work experience in more detail than with traditional interview questions. Instead of just saying “yes” or “no,” the candidate can use examples or stories from their own lives to answer behavioral questions. These questions can be more interesting, detailed, and interactive than traditional interview questions, which can help you find out more about the candidate.
10 examples of behavioral interview questions
Reading examples of behavioral interview questions can help you identify them and give you ideas for which ones to ask in future interviews. Here are 10 example questions for reference:
- Give me an example of something you did wrong at work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a tough situation you had to deal with at work.
- How do you usually work when you’re busy and keep your cool?
- Can you tell me something you do to help you reach your goals?
- Can you tell me about a time when you had to do something that wasn’t popular and how you did it?
- Can you tell me about a time when you inspired or pushed a coworker to do something?
- What’s a goal you’ve set for yourself recently and accomplished?
- Tell me about a situation you wish you had handled differently at work.
- Have you ever worked with people who did things differently than you? How did you handle it?
- Do you remember a time when you didn’t meet your own goals or your boss’s expectations? What did you say in response?
